Tuesday, July 2nd 2013 - Relaxing in Tokyo

This morning we had absolutely no schedule, a beautiful hotel room, and some lovely sunshine. After we finally decided to get up, we went downstairs to the lobby where the hotel prepared breakfast. You could have either Japanese-style (fish, rice, soup, natto) or western-style (weird sandwich, murdock salad, french fries, broccoli soup, and plain yogurt, just like you have everyday back home). We felt that since we had the Japanese-style breakfast in Nikko, we could get the western-style without guilt. In addition to this, they had a buffet that was open to all with waffles and granola and vinegar fruit juice and a coffee machine. There was enough good mixed in with the weird to make for a satisfying, culinarily adventurous breakfast.

*SuperNova Travel Tip - We love the Dormy Inn! 

After breakfast and a shower, we set out towards Shibuya (thank you IB for showing us the way, otherwise we totally would have walked back to Harajuku station and taken the train to Shibuya) to do some shopping. Now, those of you that know me know that I'm not much of a shopper. However, this is Japan and it can be a lot of fun wandering through shops and finding all the crazy, fun, extremely useful items they have. We started out in Loft which is like . . . um, well, it's set up like a department store, but it has more home supplies sort of like Target, so I guess picture Target if each department was a different floor and there was no clothing. We got a few things and I asked the cashier if there was a 100¥ shop nearby. She consulted another lady for a moment, then pulled out a street map that was just handily stored next to the cash register and pointed out a store called Can Do, which was exceptionally helpful and on the way to Tokyu Hands, where we were going next anyway.

*SuperNova Travel Tip - 100¥ shops (basically dollar stores) in Japan are awesome and you can find some amazing things there. I highly recommend checking them out for souvenirs and mementos. 3 coin stores (which basically means 300¥ stores) can also be interesting, but often have less of a selection.

The 100¥ shop had some great stuff, but no AC in the basement level store, so we tried to get out as quickly as possible. A note about AC - I kept worrying about needing a jacket for things like the Robot Restaurant or the department stores, but the AC was set quite comfortably low (for me, I think Mc was dying on a regular basis). IB said that they used to blast the AC, but since the big earthquake they have reduced AC use as part of energy conservation. Anyway, next was Tokyu Hands. Tokyu Hands is a huge store with a crazy amount of crazy things. You can find tools and bath stools and crafts and heated toilet seats and party equipment and horse masks and summer wind chimes and pet goods and it is just a generally cool store to visit. And if you exhaust yourself looking, there is a reasonably-priced cafe on the top floor (2 sandwich sets with fries and tea/coffee came to about 1,500¥, plus because he ordered the ginger pork sandwich, Mc got a free gift -  a tiny plastic pig). On our way back to the hotel from Tokyu Hands, Mc saw Manadrake and if you are a retro super-nerd, you should go to this shop! It was way, way down a very dark stairwell with flashing overhead lights that was vaguely reminiscent of the opening scene of a zombie apocalypse game, but when we finally went through the door, instead of a murder trap, we found a huge basement room jam-packed with collectibles - manga, comics, character goods, blind box figures, stuff dating all the way back to the original Godzilla days. And while you might not speak Japanese, Nerd is a common tongue. Just make an effort to pronounce your favorite series in a Japanese fashion and the helpful staff will direct you to the correct aisle of treasures! (Don't try to say the name in Japanese, I asked the staff about Final Fantasy VII, but I used the Japanese word for 7, which was silly because they call it FF7.)

Because we wanted to make the most of our lovely hotel, we decided to head back around 4pm. We picked up some snacks from Family Mart (brie flavored jagarico, good, but strange . . . ) to tide us over until the free late night soba bar opened up in the lobby and headed back to the room to chill. We also did something I have never done before - scheduled a hotel massage! After walking around Japan on unforgiving concrete for hours and hours each day for 17 days, we were starting to get very achy feet and the hotel had an offer for a 20 min. foot massage for 2,000¥ that sounded very reasonable and very tempting. So the plan was for a late night of relaxation - soba bar at 9:30pm, massages at 10:30pm and 11:30pm, and then a soak in the hotel onsen before passing out completely.

Nyanko-sensei coveting our snacks

*SuperNova Travel Tip - It really does help to know a little of the language to wherever you are traveling. Even though the front desk people at our hotel speak great English, the masseuse had a little more trouble when I called to make the reservation. For example, I told him I wanted the foot massage and he asked "total body massage?" and I said "ie, ashi" which simply means "no, foot" but got the message across perfectly. Also, I gave the times I wanted in Japanese so that there would be no confusion (although he's probably not as busy on a Tuesday night). So, you have 3 options:
   1. Learn a little Japanese. You don't have to go blow a month's salary on Rosetta Stone, there are lots of language CDs at the library as well as language books, there's even a great series for kids called Let's Learn . . . for Spanish, Japanese, French, etc. that teaches through children's songs, which is great for learning basic vocabulary in an earworm type of way.
   2. Find someone who speaks Japanese. It's easier than you think; for example, in this situation I could have asked the front desk to make the reservation for me.
   3. Make the reservation in person. When you are communicating in person, you can use gestures and facial expressions and I cannot express enough how effective these two things are! For example, with the mix-up I had, I could have just pointed to my foot if I had been there in person.

Anyway, the foot massage was excellent. It was different than any I'd had before - it was much more pressure point focused, but it felt very good. Afterwards, I went into the hotel onsen. I'm not sure if you can officially call it an onsen if it's not actually natural hot springs, but it was a fancy area where you publicly bathe, so onsen is the word I will use. The Dormy Inn onsen's claim to fame is that they use super soft water. I know this because the sign in the onsen was in English. Apparently they remove the metallic ions and take the hardness as close to zero as possible, whatever that means. The effect is that the water makes your skin and hair super soft, it almost feels as if you didn't get all the soap off. My hair the next day was super shiny. I give soft water a thumbs up. The soaking pool also had around 50 oranges in it, for decoration perhaps, or maybe the oils in the peel. There was only one other person in the soaking pool since it was so late, which was nice, and we quietly sat not looking at each other. After the soak, I tried all the products in the dressing area (although even after trying it, I still have no idea what face water is), and then went back to the room and watched Japanese commercials and I fell asleep until Mc returned from his side of the onsen.

*SuperNova Travel Tip - If you are traveling for a long time, don't forget to relax. You will enjoy your trip so much more if you are not in pain and take the time to do an activity that allows you to de-stress. 

Saturday, June 29th 2013 - Shibuya

Saturday was lovely because we were back in Tokyo at a friend's aparto with nothing in particular to rush off and do. We slept in and then got to do our laundry, which was really nice. Once we were up and showered, we headed out to Shibuya, which is IB's stomping grounds.

We were able to walk to Shibuya from IB's aparto in Ebisu and the weather was really nice; warm and clear with a nice breeze. On the way we stopped to get a drink at a conbini and Mc decided to try blue Skal which turned out to be a fizzy pop drink that tasted like bubble gum. Once we arrived, the first thing we wanted to show Mc was The Scramble. The Scramble is a famous crossing in Shibuya (maybe only in Japan can you find a famous crosswalk), just outside the Hachiko exit. If you want to see the stereotypical massive crush of Japanese people, go here. This is where 5 streets converge and instead of having the crosswalks take turns and go with the traffic, all the cars are stopped and all the pedestrians get to go at once in every direction imaginable for 20 frenzied seconds. If you are going to lose the people you are traveling with, it's going to be here. Across the street from the Hachiko exit is a building with a Starbucks a few stories up, which is super popular because it overlooks the Scramble crossing and you get a great view of the madness from above. It is usually packed, but we got to Starbucks early so we were able to get seats and watch for a while.

Famous Hachiko statue outside the Hachiko exit

After a bit, IB led us away from Starbucks through the streets of Shibuya to a completely different coffee experience. We found ourselves in the Love Hotel district in Maruyama-cho, where IB led us through an old-fashioned doorway and back in time. We left the hot, bustling streets of Shibuya and entered a huge, dark room that was cool and calm. There was a complete absence of noise except for the classical music gently filling our ears. We were led upstairs to a small table in the loft, overlooking an immense speaker system set amidst antique furniture and hundreds of classical music albums. IB had brought us to the Lion Cafe, built in 1923 and created as a space where people can come to relax and enjoy music. Talking is not allowed, even our waiter took our order in hushed tones. There are few windows, so the shop remains dark and cool even in summer, and despite the fact that this was a beautiful respite from the busy life outside the door, there were very few people inside. We sat and drank milk tea and whispered and relaxed. It is one of those hard to explain experiences you get in Japan in that it is in no way Japanese and at the same time uniquely Japanese. I highly recommend stopping by if you need a break and a calm moment. http://lion.main.jp/

Milk tea with huge speakers in the background at Lion Cafe

From there we went to Tokyu Hands (not Tokyo, Tokyu), a multi-story superstore of everything and anything. If you travel to Japan, I recommend you find a Tokyu Hands and save a day near the end of your trip for shopping. They have a section of the store for every room in your house, plus floors dedicated to hobbies, pets, science, weird Japanese toys, etc. It's super interesting, but very big, so set aside a chunk of time if you decide to go.

For lunch, IB wanted to take Mc to a real ramen shop and we went to 2 places that ended up being closed. We were getting hungry and finally settled on Matsuya. Matsuya is a Japanese fast food noodle shop. You order and pay for your meal from a fancy digital vending machine, then you find a seat and hand your ticket to a person in an apron. Within minutes, your food is sitting in front of you, and if you are a Japanese person, you eat it in seemingly one long, loud slurp. The food was actually really good and cheap, which surprised us Americans who assume that any fast food is going to be low quality. Matsuya is a chain you will see frequently and is a good choice if you are hungry, love noodles, and do not fear vending machines (which had really great pictures, making choosing your meal easy even if you don't read Japanese). They are easy to spot, just look for the bright yellow, orange, and blue signs.

R's wife had taken Now-chan to visit family and he had the night free, so he met us in Shibuya and we had a mini JET reunion. After a brief discussion about where the best beer can be found, we headed off to Good Beer Faucets, a craft beer pub in Shibuya ( http://goodbeerfaucets.jp/). If you like beer and are tired of the generic "biru" you order in Japanese restaurants, this is a great place to visit. It's modern, clean, the staff speak English, and the beer selection is large.

Dinner was scheduled to be yakiniku. Yakiniku basically just means grilled meat, and when you go to a yakiniku restaurant, you sit at a table with a little grill in the middle, order plates of a variety of raw things, and then grill them while you visit and eat. It's sort of like a tiny barbeque with a select few friends. I love yakiniku and had wanted to take Mc to one and IB lived across the street from a yakiniku place that he'd been wanting to try, so it was kismet. The restaurant was called Hachi Hachi (Eight Eight) and was a lot of fun. We got a variety of meats and vegetables to grill, bibimbap, kimchee, and lots more beer.

Hachi Hachi yakiniku restaurant

The only logical end to the evening was a round of ancient traditional Japanese karaoke. IB took us to Aso Viba, a cheap karaoke place near his home. For those of you who have never tried Japanese karaoke, it is much different than in the States. Instead of singing a song in front of an entire bar after waiting an hour for your turn, you are given a private room with a telephone on the wall where you can order drinks and snacks as you make an ass of yourself in front of your closest friends and loved ones. There is less pressure (except peer-pressure, there's way more of that), you get to sing as much as you want too, and their sound system makes you feel like a total rockstar. It is so much more fun; you have no idea. We may have forcibly dragged R into the karaoke booth, but it was for the best as we blasted 80s hits and played air guitar well into the night (R took me and a few other newbies to my first Japanese karaoke experience way back when). And if I got a little misty-eyed, it was probably just the smoke from the yakiniku . . .